Julian Assange Doesn't Do Irony Well: Threatens His Own Internal Leakers With $20 Million Penalty

from the that-seems-just-a-little-hypocritical dept

It's no secret that Wikileaks' Julian Assange is a man of many contradictions, who has what appears to be a vindictive and angry streak against those who disagree with him on certain plans. However, now reports are coming out that he made his own associates sign an incredibly draconian non-disclosure agreement which threatens anyone who leaks documents from within Wikileaks with the potential for a $20 million penalty. I guess, you could argue that since he recognizes how much leaking goes on, that it makes sense to put in place extreme penalties. Of course, the alternative explanation that many seem to prefer is that he's just annoying, paranoid and, at times, more than a bit hypocritical.

Because letting Wikileaks' journalists publish classified information without editing, redaction, and oversight under Wikileaks' name makes perfect sense! Are you going to take your argument to its logical conclusion and argue against all NDA's or are you going to hold WL, whose employees actually deal with information that could threaten lives and safety if not properly edited, to a hypocritical and self-destructive standard like the rest of the band-wagon?

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It ultimately doesn't matter. What people have a hard time with in Western society is divorcing the worth of actions with the worth of those acting. I personally think Julian Assange is a shit stain, but Wikileaks is a force of good on the world overall. For me, I can keep those two things separate and compartmentalize them.

Most can't, however, which is why we all talk about Julian instead of Wikileaks, much to the detriment of what Wikileaks is trying to do....

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Those were my thoughts too, anyone working on those leaked documents needs to follow the Wikileaks rules on editing and redacting sensitive information that could harm innocent people. Obviously leaking those documents unredacted is a no-no, and there should be a huge penalty for that.

It would also undermine Wikileak's claim to redact documents if someone from within the organization was releasing them unredacted.

Are you really surprised?

This sort of hypocrisy seems to be around a lot. In recent time I have seen articles on here about copyright supporters who infringe themselves, intelligence agencies who don't want to have their information leaked, and journalism organizations who don't want you to read their content...

I don't think this is ironic: since Wikileaks isn't opposed to secrets, just secrets being used to hide government and corporate corruption, it's fair enough that they like to keep some things secret. I guess they are protecting their sources, like journalists usually do, and this document is proof they are being professional about their work.

I do think this is ironic: Wikileaks opponents scream that "Wikileaks is dumping hundreds of thousands of documents and putting people in danger!" and then the same people scream about "irony" when it turns out Wikileaks makes people handling sensitive material sign a CDA to avoid releasing unredacted documents.

So...

...if some juicy confidential Wikileaks documents show up on the Pentagon's website, will the Wikileaks supporters here accuse the Joint Chiefs of crimes against humanity and call for them to be fed to crocodiles without benefit of council?

The Answer is Obvious

I really don't see what the issue is here. The type of information being handled by WikiLeaks, as we have seen in the past, can be viewed as incredibly sensitive and the reactions the ignorant masses have when exposed to factual information can cause quite an upset.

So, when people start labeling the organization as terrorists, murderers, and the like - it makes sense to try and present their practices in a mannerism as favorable as possible. Allowing anyone in the organization to freely disperse whatever information they may have on hand could easily jeopardize those efforts, or whatever trust current & potential leakers may have.

Now if someone came forth revealing information about persons or practices of malicious intent from within WikiLeaks itself and were then sued in return for doing so, it would be incredibly hypocritical.